New Dukes of Hazzard Item: The Schuco Piccolo 1/90 General Lee

We got a new General Lee on the market!  I love getting new unexpected Dukes items.  This great little car comes from Germany's historic Schuco company in their much loved Piccolo line.  It is quite small measuring in at 1/90 scale and has excellent detail.  Let's take a look at the newest Dukes collectible out there.

The Piccolo line dates back to 1957 and is very popular in Europe with many fans here in the U.S. The trademark of the line is the solid body with it's unexpected weight.  Let me tell you, this little bugger is heavy.  I was really surprised when I took it out of the box by how heavy it is.  The wheels are the only separate pieces to the construction with the exception of the push bar.

All of the characteristics of the General Lee are well represented.  Schuco put the detail into the 01s, the General Lee text, and also the flag.  This is a very good representation of our favorite flying orange clunker car.

The wheels don't have any detail to them, but they fit in line with the wheels on other Piccolo cars.  

The 1/90 scale is new to Dukes of Hazzard cars.  It measures in at just over two and a half inches.  This is a popular scale in Europe and the Piccolo line has been following this scale since its inception in the '50s.

The push bar is nicely replicated on the Piccolo General Lee.  The painted on windshields and windows achieve the illusion that the Gen'ral is driving on a sunny day, like most days seemed to be in Hazzard.  We would just have to warn Bo and Luke that the windows are rolled up before they try to get in through them.

The bottom of the solid body has the Shuco Piccolo logo and also says Dodge Charger on it.  Looking through Shoco's current catalog, I don't see any other Chargers, but I'm guessing there will be a non-Generalized version released in the future.  If they put the work in to create a great Charger mold, you start out on top with the best Charger ever, the Gen'ral, then you continue to utilize it by making others in various colors.  It just makes sense.  Shuco has been releasing several different Herbie the Love Bug cars in the Piccolo line and other scales for many years.  Hopefully this isn't the only General Lee that Shuco graces us with.

The General comes in a standard Schuco Piccolo box that any other car in the line would also come in.  There are no mentions of the Dukes of Hazzard anywhere on the box.  The large display window shows you exactly what goodness is inside.

The back of the box has a warning about small parts in several different languages that takes up the most real estate.  There are two stickers on the back.  One sticker shows that this particular car is a limited edition limited to only one thousand pieces and the other sticker has the barcode information and the title "Piccolo Dodge Charger General Lee."  There is no mention of the Dukes or Warner Bros. anywhere on the box.

This car is the fourth Dukes of Hazzard car to come from Europe in the past several years.  Each car showed exquisite detail and craftsmanship.  The other cars are the Neo 1/43 Hazzard County Police Car, the Matrix 1/43 "JDH" 1970 Cadillac De Ville, and this year's Pioneer 1/32 General Lee slot car. Keep them coming my European friends!

You know I had to pull out a few other cars and do a few of my patented scale photos.  Here we have a Johnny Lightning 1/64 in the back and a Racing Champion 1/144 in the front.  The new Shuco Piccolo General fits right about exactly in the middle though it weighs about three times as much the other two cars combined.

Even though it is almost completely a solid piece, the Piccolo has about as much detail as the other two cars.  It is definitely a great addition to the collection.

The color is more reddish orange on par with most other replicas.  The 1/64 JL is standing out in this picture as being more plain orange.  Behind the 1/64 JL are the 1/25 Auto World Snap-It model kit and the 1/18 Light and Sound General Lee from Malibu International that came out in 2005 (I never did a blog post on that car...looks like it's time for one).

I didn't know this car was on the way.  Several fellow Dukes of Hazzard enthusiasts (crazy collectors like me) alerted me of its existence and I want to thank them for that.  I'm not sure if there are many dealers that sell this car in the U.S. and I had to get mine from dealers across the pond.  Given that it is limited to 1000, I wouldn't wait too long to pick one up as any limited edition tends to go up in value.  I picked up a few and already added one to my main display that doesn't see too many additions lately.  It's that nice.  I don't think Shuco usually releases variants or chase cars, so hopefully we won't be going crazy looking for different color versions.  Fingers crossed on that one. Hop online and find one of these bad boys. It's a great new Dukes of Hazzard item, and those are few and far between these days.

1/43 General Lee Resin Replica from Auto World

At long last, the new Auto World 1/43 General Lee resin replica is out!  To celebrate, I took a billion pictures.

Auto World was told by Warner Brothers not to show the rebel flag on the outside of their Dukes of Hazzard packages, as was anyone currently producing Dukes products.  Their first attempt at adding a temporary orange stick over the flag seems to have brought them unwanted criticism.  People thought they committed an egregious act by removing the flag.  Auto World respects the General Lee too much to ever do that.  All of their releases since have had a sealed box with a side shot of the Gen'ral.  No reason to suspect the flag isn't there.  Good thinking.

The box for the 1/43 has the design we know and love.  It has the familiar pictures of the General on the sides.

It has the newer red Auto World stripe that was also on the 1/18 Plymouth and the slot cars.

Inside the box is another box that you can use to display the General in if you choose to look at the actual car.  I like that AW gives you options.

The back of the internal box is similar to the back of the external box, but it has the Silver Screens Machines logo on it.  It also says "1/43 Scale Resin Replica" where the external has that on the front.

The car comes with a display case and base.  This is my third 1/43 car and they all have cases.  It must be the norm with this scale car.

Like the other ones, the base is also labeled.

The car is very detailed.  It has an antenna and windshield wipers.  It lives up to the Auto World standard set by the king of Dukes replicas, the AW 1/18 General Lee.

Unlike diecast replicas, resin cars do not have moving parts like opening hoods.  The wheels barely move on this car.  It is surely a replica and not a toy.

The flag and text look great.

The interior is surprisingly detailed for a car of this size.  You can see details in the instrument panels and seat belts.  The roll bar looks great too.  

The wheels are also nearly perfect.  These are the best the General Lee wheels look and any replica beside the AW 1/18.

 

The bottom of the car has some detail along with 2013 copyright information for Warner Bros. and Round 2.  I wonder why it has 2013 and not 2014.  Maybe it has to do with when the was approved.

I've been waiting to take this picture since I received the other two, non-licensed, 1/43 scale resin Dukes of Hazzard vehicles.  The set is complete not.  These three cars look great together.  They were made to be together, by three different, seemingly foreign companies.

This makes me wish I had a 1/43 resin Boar's Nest to set up behind the cars.

The license plates all look correct, but the General is a little yellower.  But that is as consistent as they were on the show.   If Auto World or some random foreign company would like to add the Dukes 1/43 collection, we still need Daisy's Jeep, Uncle Jesse's Pickup, and Cooter's Tow Truck.  Come on world, we can do this.

It is a shame that the three cars are in such different boxes.  They don't look right displayed together in the box.  The Rosco display case is only slightly smaller than the General's, but the Caddy is way too big.  Much better to display them out of the box together.

I had to compare the two Auto World replicas.  This is the 1/18 and the new 1/43.

The wheels look great on both.  The 1/43 might even look a little better.

The 01s on both also look great.

The CNH-320 plate looks the same on both.

It seems maybe AW listened to my complaining about the rebel flag front plate.  It is a staple on tribute General Lees, but it wasn't used on the show.  Good move AW not including it.

The flags and text match on the two cars.

I love doing these kind pictures.  This is the most detailed car in each scale.

We have the AW 1/18 in the back, the Danbury Mint 1/24 General Lee, the 1/36 Corgi General Lee, the new 1/43 from AW, Johnny Lightning's Dukes of Hazzard Series 3 1/64 General Lee, and the Racing Champion 1/144 General Lee.  All of these cars are diecast except the new 1/43.

These shots are fun to take and play with.  I love having so many General Lees.

The new Auto World 1/43 is only slightly smaller than the Corgi 1/36.  

But the level of detail is worlds apart.  The AW blows the Corgi out of the water, or off the dirt road.

The Danbury Mint General is similar to the new 1/43, but has all the nice moving parts that the AW doesn't.  The decals on the AW look better.

These are the three highly detailed General Lee replicas.  The two by AW and the Danbury Mint.  They are the best General Lee replicas you can buy.

Auto World's recent line of Dukes of Hazzard Silver Screen Machines is impressive.  The 1/43 resin General Lee joins the assortment of slot car General Lees, the 1/18 Daisy Duke Plymouth, and the 1/18 Lee.  The Hazzard County Pursuit Police Car is due to be released in a couple of weeks and will join the line.   I told you I took a lot of pictures.

Our friend Kevin Clark took his photography and design talent to the three Dukes 1/43 cars and sent me this very cool advertisement.  This shot looks professional, thanks Kevin!